Herr Prop-Wasche

Congratulations, Joker! Computers are mysterious creatures aren't they, sort of like women! My apologies, Womanfly2!

A new version of my Intermediate DM has been uploaded to combatace.com The IntDMreadme.txt explains the minor change made to this version. I hope you enjoy the new version. Comments are welcome and appreciated!

I'm currently about to test the theory you proposed in your PM's. If you are correct, I will amend my DM (with your permission) to reflect your findings and give you equal billing in any subsequent uploads of the mod. Just when I thought my work was about finished!

Nice picture, Macklroy! My guess is that you are a newly enlisted pilot. You don't yet have that far off stare and cold, hardened expression of a man who has ridden with death as his wingmate. That will come sooner than you think, rookie!

Thanks, Olham. It will be my honor for "my" skin to be entered into the skinning contest. I don't fly online much, so it will not bother me if someone else is impressed enough with the skin you are doing for me that they go ahead and decide to download it, too!

The readme explains it all:

Bump for anyone who might be interested in trying a different damage model. Only 4 downloads so far.

Would anyone care to comment on the flying characteristics of the Fokker Dr I in BHaH? As you know, I am thinking about tinkering a bit with the Dr I flying model, but I don't want to overdo it. How does the current model reflect what you believe to be the true characteristics of the triplane? I know very well that people's opinions on this are going to vary a great deal, so please keep the conversation civil. No personal attacks, please. I don't want to open up a can of worms, I'm just curious about what some of you think might be improved. Of course, we are limited by the CFS3 engine, so I don't think I will be able to reproduce a flat 180 degree turn (if it was even truly capable of such a feat), but what else do you think it might have done better (or worse) in real life than it currently does in the game? For those of you with a little knowledge of aeronautics, how well do you think the current model reflects things such as gyroscopic precession on pitch and yaw, torque, p-factor, or side-slip? Are the ailerons and the rudder too effective or not effective enough, for example? Note that I have absolutely no plans to change any of the dimensions of the plane, or its speed, diving, or climbing abilities. I'm interested in the feel of it, more than anything. Also keep in mind that I don't want to upset the current balance of play in the sim. Ideally, even with any changes that I make, an ace in either the Camel or the DR I should still be able to easily shoot down a novice or even a veteran in the other. A tall order, and maybe a bit unrealistic of me? Perhaps, but I like a good challenge! Finally, I do not mean to imply in any way, shape, or form any criticism of OBD Software for their interpretation of the FM of the Dr I. I think we all agree they have done a fantastic job on ALL of the aircraft in OFF, including the Dr I. I guess it's just that most people enjoy flying the QC's or in the campaign. Others prefer to tinker around. I guess I'm one of the latter.

Wow! Simply wow! Words cannot describe what you have done there, nor my jaw hitting the floor when I opened up this thread! What artistry! What dedication! Where are you from? I'm thinking I may have to save up for a plane ticket just so I can see this live Dawn Patrol in action! Congratulations!

Gosh, when I was a kid, I had a copy of Avalon Hill's, Richthofen's War. I wonder how much that goes for on ebay these days?

I think he is referring to requesting a transfer to a new squadron. Sort of like being invited to join Jasta 11 in recognition of your superior flying skills.

That is a very kind offer, Olham. Danke. Give me a bit to think about it. I would probably prefer an aircraft from the Central Powers--either your beloved Albatross DIII or a Fokker DVII. Perhaps on the fuselage, a large bird of prey, such as a European eagle or hawk with wings and claws outstretched--going in for the kill, would be ideal. Or, maybe you could paint the whole plane as if it were a giant bird of prey, like the beautiful dragon skin by RAF Louvert? Whichever you prefer, I will simply commission the work and defer to your artistic license! Thanks again. This will help to make me feel even further immersed into the world Between Heaven and Hell!

No, but you can manually edit your PilotDossier.txt file to change the name of your squadron to the desired one. However, there is a small chance this will mess up something in the game and force you to delete your pilot folder. I haven't tried this trick myself, but I'm sure a few people can tell you about their experiences. BTW, the PilotDossier.txt file is located in the OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\Pilots folder.

You guys with your paints make me jealous. I can't even skin a cat! Please don't bother trying to convince me otherwise, I have some genetic abnormality which renders me entirely incapable of drawing or painting anything more complicated than a straight line. Sigh.

Guys, that's obviously a flux capacitor! You can't go back to the future without one!

...I am working on. 1) An intermediate DM for QC aircraft. If anyone is interested, I will soon upload a zip file containing an intermediate DM, based upon the hardcore DM, but only about 75% as strong in the aileron cables, ailerons, and main wings. Almost all other values were left alone. I feel this results in more varied aircraft performance when damaged without turning everything into a shooting gallery as in the easy DM mode. If enough people download the DM and express an interest in having an intermediate DM for the campaign, I will do that in the near future. 2) A slightly altered (and I hope improved) FM for the Fokker Dr I. I have been experimenting with the .cfg file for the Dr I in QC mode, using the airwrench utility program. Although I have not been able to produce a flat turn, I have made some very small alterations in the FM to make the DR I just a little more nimble and fun to fly. The current FM for the DR I seems a little lifeless, IMO. I want to make it a little more quirky, but not ueber it up so that it has an unfair advantage against the Camel, for example. This is still a work in progress, but if you are interested, send me a PM and I will send you a evaluation version for you comments. It's late in the eastern USA, so I will not be able to comment on this thread for several hours. But, let me know if you are interested in either of these projects!

OlPaint01, Thanks for the words of encouragement. I do plan to upload a version for all of the OFF aircraft, but there is a lot of copying and pasting of files involved, so it will probably be awhile. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if people would give the QC DM a try so I can get some feedback about my changes. P.S. where is Circleville? I'm in Dayton. Are you coming to the WWI fly-in in September? Olham, My changes to the Dr1 FM will almost exclusively be in handling characteristics. I currently have no plans to alter the power, speed, or climbing ability of the airplane. So, no DR1 with rocket boosters!

The intermediate damage model for QC flights has been uploaded to the combatace 3rd party mods sub-forum. I have tested this mod and it installs quickly and without a hitch. You can easily switch back to either the hardcore or easy DM by running the respective program already supplied by OBD. Please see the readme included in the zip file for more details. Thank you OBD for allowing me to post this mod and for your previous work on this wonderful sim!

The FM for the DR I should be real easy to change. All it will involve is replacing the aircraft.cfg file in your OBD Software/Over Flanders Fields/aircraft/Fokker_DR1_QC1 folder with my new aircraft.cfg file. Just don't forget to rename your original aircraft.cfg file first. You can easily switch back between the two files. No editing involved!

Rabu, Can these be made into t-shirts? I will be going to the WWI fly-in at WPAFB in Ohio in September and was hoping to have an OFF t-shirt to advertise this great game to other WWI enthusiasts. Your posters would look fantastic!

This may be possible via editing of the .xdp files. After backing up the existing .xdp file, open up the .xdp file and navigate towards the end of the file after the damage box section (look for </DamageBoxes>) to the <Systems> section. Turn on the search and replace function and replace all instances of "100" with "99." Save file. Fly. See what happens.

Not to be facetious, but this is one of the hazards when playing DiD!! Seriously, God rest his soul and all the other brave pilots of the Great War.

Okay, for those impatient enough who want the AA effectiveness toned down a bit but don't want to wait for a patch, I think I have found the spot in the files which controls the AA guns. Shockingly, it is located in the folder titled, "guns." Simply open the guns folder and navigate to the .xdp files with the file names preceded with the word "off." For example, off_vickers_land.xdp Open these files with a text editor and look for this line near the end of the file: <Gun GunType="gun" Range="1000" SoundName="Vickers_Land" Rate="8.33" MuzzleVelocity="744" TimeAlive="2" Noise="2" . I'm guessing Range refers to meters. Obviously, the important parameter is "Noise." To decrease the AA accuracy, simply increase the noise value. Caution: alter at your own risk. I have not yet tested these changes in my installation of OFF. Happy modding!

Maybe you just got a "lemon" (defective airplane). If I were you, I'd go to the factory and show them what for! :

These are both good statistical observations. As someone with a little grad school experience in statistics (okay, I took two classes), the average can be a deceptive measure of central tendency in certain situations. This is especially the case if we don't have a standard deviation supplied with the average. The standard deviation in a set of scores helps to identify the spread of scores around the average. A low S.D. generally indicates that most of the scores are clustered close to the average while a high S.D. indicates that most scores are relatively far away from the average in both directions. Of course, the S.D. is not available here, so I won't worry any more about that. OTOH, when a distribution of numbers or scores is skewed in one direction or another, the average tends to be distorted in the direction of the skew. For example, if we assume that the number of pilots who did not make it to 17 hours exceeds the number of pilots who did make it that far (a fairly safe assumption for WWI, I think), then the average is going to shrink accordingly. In these cases, the median is the better measure of central tendency. What was the median survival time for aeroplane pilots in WWI? My bet is that it was higher than the 17 hour average. If that is accurate, then the difficulty that most of us are having in reaching only 17 hours is even less reflective of reality than it actually was in WWI. So, again, what best represents the true reality of flying and fighting in a rickety canvas airplane in WWI? I don't think we can ever have a completely accurate answer to that question. Therefore, we have to rely more on what feels right, rather than what is right. But this leads back to my subjective opinion versus yours. My feeling is to make OFF slightly easier at the hardest settings but without turning it into an arcade shooter. Perhaps we should have a "super-duper hard" setting?